Japantown Community Meetin...A Sham

By HIROSHI FUKUDA

The Feb. 12 Japantown Better Neighborhood Plan Community Meeting was clearly a sham. The city planners and consultants had us play a “game.”

There were 15-16 tables with two facilitators at each table. Each table was instructed to work as a team to “map out” how we ideally envisioned Japantown to be eventually. We were instructed to place, on large maps of Japantown at each table, little pieces of colored paper that represented: mixed-use housing; corner stores; green spaces; community organizations, i.e., nonprofits and churches that should be protected or preserved; etc.

(Editor's note: The following is an excerpt of a presentation made at the Feb. 17 Day of Remembrance commemoration in San Francisco.

By GRACE SHIMIZU

Day of Remembrance is an important tradition in the Japanese American community, rooted in remembrance, education and activism for redress and social justice. As we observe this year's Day of Remembrance and the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, we must also recognize that the struggle for redress continues.

Dear Editor,

Now that mankind (oxymoron?) has advanced the meta-physics and physics of war to the new reality of total universal destruction, the warriors' creed must also change.

"Fantastic Voyage"
By JEFF ASAI
Nichi Bei Times Columnist

Recently, I had the pleasure of attending two very different but very fun events.

Asahi Shimbun

TOKYO — In response to a series of arrests, U.S. military authorities in Japan prohibited troops and their families from leaving their bases in Okinawa Prefecture and Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, starting Feb. 20.

NAHA, Okinawa Prefecture (Kyodo) — Another U.S. Marine is suspected of committing a crime in Okinawa Prefecture as Japan is stepping up calls for the United States to toughen discipline on its military personnel stationed there, Japanese investigative sources said Feb. 19.

U.S. military authorities have detained the Marine in his 20s who is suspected of counterfeiting dozens of $20 notes and passing some of them in Okinawa, the sources said.

"Rabbit Ramblings"
By CHIZU OMORI
Nichi Bei Times Columnist

We're all starting off the new year on wobbly footing, it seems to me. By the time this column is printed, the Iowa caucuses will have been held, the New Hampshire primary, and perhaps we'll have a better idea of what the political landscape of the New Year will look like.

As for me, I reflect on the year past as the year in which we all had to look at reality face to face and to see that the future doesn't look so great. Our nation is in a troubled position, the economy is in an uncertain state, other nations are shaky, especially Pakistan, and above us, the shadow of global warming hangs over the entire planet. We're wiping out species of animals and plants at breakneck speed and our oceans are beginning to show ominous signs of pollution.

By APRIL ELKJER
Nichi Bei Times

Before Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" and the Kyoto Protocol we were blissfully ignorant. We burned coal during the Industrial Revolution, we bought gas-guzzling SUVs and used plastic bags indiscriminately. Basically we enjoyed a well propped up life of luxury.

By April Elkjer
NICHI BEI TIMES

At the 2008 Silicon Valley International Auto Show in San Jose, alternative fuel cars or 'green fleet' took some of the limelight as a powerfully growing motor trend that is taking root in the U.S.

If you are in the market for a new car you might consider some of the new emerging vehicles that do not run solely on gasoline. Alternative fuel vehicles include any dedicated, flexible-fuel, or dual-fuel vehicle designed to operate on at least one alternative fuel.

By ALEC YOSHIO MacDONALD
Nichi Bei Times

When racism makes headlines, it's often in the form of a singular incident — a hate crime, a prejudiced remark, an inappropriate joke. A familiar script unfolds in the aftermath, as the press and civil rights groups ring the alarm, the public reacts and the perpetrators face retribution.

By KATHY AOKI
Nichi Bei Times

Going "Green" is nothing new to the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California (JCCCNC) in San Francisco's Japantown.

Five years ago, the organization installed a new lighting system to help save energy.

By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

For the last four decades, Japanese Canadian scientist and media personality David Suzuki has been the face of environmental issues in British Columbia. In his efforts to save the environment, Suzuki has travelled the world lecturing on environmental issues, discussed them on his award-winning television and radio shows, started an environmental sustainability organization called the David Suzuki Foundation that is funded largely by individuals and not corporations, and, at age 70, posed nude (save for a well-placed maple leaf) in print ads.

By ALEC YOSHIO MacDONALD
Nichi Bei Times

"Transportation produces about half of the greenhouse gas emissions in the Bay Area, and most of that is from private automobiles," revealed environmentalist Margaret Okuzumi.

But that's not the main reason she prefers other modes of travel.

"You notice things when you're walking or biking that you don't when you're driving in a steel box," she explained. "It's just a very different experience, how you're aligning to your environment and your fellow human beings."

By ALEC YOSHIO MacDONALD
Nichi Bei Times

It's Dean Higuchi's responsibility to care for one of the most beautiful and precious places on earth, but he's not looking to do it all by himself.

"Everybody in Hawai'i enjoys the natural environment," he remarked, so therefore, "it's everybody's job to protect it."

SURPRISE, Ariz. (Kyodo) — Veteran right-hander Hideo Nomo began his bid Feb. 14 for a comeback to the big leagues with the Kansas City Royals as spring training got under way with eight different major league clubs.

The 39-year-old Nomo joined teammate and former Lotte Marines right-hander Yasuhiko Yabuta at the camp, where newly appointed manager Trey Hillman takes the reins after leading the Nippon Ham Fighters to two consecutive Pacific League titles in Japan.

By BEN HAMAMOTO
Nichi Bei Times

The Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) will take film lovers into both the past and the present this year with its 26^th annual San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival.

CAAM is pulling 1936's "Whispering Sidewalks" out of its vaults. The Jazz-themed film stars Sacramento-born Nisei Betty Inada.

There are three documentaries about World War II and its legacy.